“President Trump basically told [us] you can now do your job, you will enforce laws on your books. There’s no population of alien that’s off the table anymore and we’ve been waiting on that for a decade now.”~Director of ICE Thomas Homan

Border Patrol and Immigration’s and Customs Enforcement agents complained for years that then-President Barack Obama constrained their ability to fulfill their mission. Trump campaigned on a promise that he would unleash them — and vowed to make large-scale deportation of undocumented immigrants a priority. This won Trump the endorsement of Moran’s group, which represents Border Patrol agents, and the National ICE Council, a union that represents ICE officers.

Last week, ICE carried out what it calls targeted enforcement actions — the agency doesn’t like to use the term “raids” — and arrested hundreds of people. ICE officials said that about 75 percent of those it detained were convicted criminals. But the agency has not released detailed data on those convictions, or said how many were immigration-related.

Some of the people arrested or deported under Trump would have been considered low priority for removal under Obama. Guadalupe “Lupita” García de Rayos, a mother of two U.S. citizens, had been on ICE’s radar for years after a conviction for a crime related to her immigration status — making up a Social Security number to get a job — but was not deported until last week.

ICE agents arrested a recipient of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, in Seattle last week, even though he had passed a background check for deportation relief. DACA does not fully guarantee safety from deportation, but recipients have typically been protected from removal unless convicted of a crime.

ICE agents said the man, Daniel Ramirez Medina, was a “self-admitted gang member” and a threat to public safety. His lawyer said he “was repeatedly pressured by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to falsely admit affiliation” and “unequivocally denies” the charge.

There could be as many as 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and 400,000 could be deported this year, according to the acting ICE director.

Homan said if you enter the U.S. illegally, you have committed a crime and the law will be enforced “without apology.” He also delivered a stern message to the MS-13 street gang in a Daily Caller interview.

“My gang is bigger than theirs and we are going to take them out,” he said, adding that the goal is to make good “as much as we can” on President Trump’s promise to arrest and/or deport these gang members.

Cavuto told Homan that he’s been surprised to see how “pervasive and widespread” the notoriously brutal gang has become.

Homan said it’s a “criminal syndicate” that has spread to more than 40 states, making money on prostitution, drugs, sex trafficking and illegal firearms.

“They victimize the communities they live in. They’ve spread and they’ve got our attention. … We’re coming after them very hard,” said Homan.